I’m a big fan of teaching kids early on to pick up after themselves. I can remember doing simple cleaning at a young age. There is no reason why a child can’t help out with housework. To make it easy I try to come up with simple toy storage for Jasper. He understands where his toys go and that he needs to pick up after himself. The other day we were leaving the house and he stopped at the door. He hurried over to a couple toy cars and said, “Mommy! I pick up!” and put them away.
In our front room I have a small open box that I keep a rotating number of toys and books. I alternate toys in this box because they get played with the most. It’s easy for Jasper to pull out, dig through and then put away.
Next to the box is a small yellow suitcase I’ve had for years. Jasper latched onto that forever ago so I recently decided to use it for car storage. He’s really into playing with Matchbox cars so it’s great to have them in one spot.
The giant container of cheese balls Josh thought was a good idea to buy came in handy. My parents found Jasper those awesome blocks but we really needed some way to store them. The Ziploc bag wasn’t easy for Jasper to get open and closed but I liked the idea of them being visible. Enter the cheese ball container! It works perfectly. The bag to hold all of the random balls we’ve collected was actually a laundry bag. It’s easy enough for Jasper to drag around, empty and then put them back in.
I like finding interesting ways to store toys. I want them to be accessible for Jasper so they are played with often but I also want to be able to put them away. Last summer we bought a set of old school lockers. They are waiting to get sandblasted right now and will soon be down in the playroom. I cannot wait to get them down there and figure out how to utilize them. It’s all about finding practical organization that works for the kid too.